Coordination chemistry has had an impact on many areas of science, ranging from photophysics to biology, and underpins the development many industrial products and processes. Much of the work in our group involves the design of ligands which bind very strongly and selectively to metal ions or metal surfaces. Functionalizing the ligands then allows us to tailor the properties of the complexes and use these in metal-recovery, surface engineering, metal deposition and in the development of new materials.

Simple oxime ligands achieve concentration and separation of copper in solvent extraction processes which now account for nearly a third of the world’s copper production.5 We have recently developed systems which can extract both Cu2+ and its counter anions.

Phosphonates bind strongly to aluminium oxide surfaces and protect the Al flakes used in metallic paints on cars, preventing the formation of Al(OH)3 which has a deleterious effect on the appearance of the reflective surface.1